Measurement of blood pressure variability and the clinical value

How to best assess blood pressure? The ongoing debate on the clinical value of blood pressure average and variability.

It is half a century since high blood pressure (BP) measured in the doctor’s office has been proved to be a strong predictor of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. However, it soon became clear that multiple factors can significantly affect the BP measurement result (Table 1) and may thereby have considerable impact on its prognostic ability. Despite the intensive research with almost 120 0...

Blood pressure variability: epidemiological and clinical issues.

Blood pressure variability (BPV) is a classical physiological phenomenon. This paper describes major epidemiological and clinical issues of BPV which may be important to understand the background of this interesting feature. In healthy subjects, BPV is a measure of hemodynamic condition and refl ects function of autonomic nervous system. BP fl uctuations result from the complex interaction betw...

Blood pressure variability: the effects of repeated measurement.

A series off 3 BP measurements were carried out on 2 groups of people. People not accustomed to BP measurements showed a decrease in pressure between the 1st and 3rd cuff inflation, while people trained to having their BP measured showed no such change. Measurement of the BP of 111 people on 2 successive occasions 8 days apart showed that the mean BP of the whole group decreased between visits....

Clinical value of ambulatory blood pressure monitoring.

This report reviews the evidence for and against clinical use of ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) on a large scale. Such monitoring is supported by a number of data, among which is that the end-organ damage associated with hypertension correlates more with 24-h average blood pressure than with clinic blood pressure, the correlation becoming even closer with addition of blood pressure...

Blood pressure variability: clarity for clinical practice.